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Definition of bunyip in English:

bunyip

noun

‘However, most Australians now consider the existence of the bunyip to be mythical.’

‘After the bunyip returned home, Tyawan crept out of his cave to search for his magic bone.’

‘Some say the bunyip looks like a huge snake with a beard and a mane; others say it looks like a huge furry half-human beast with a long neck and a head like a bird.’

‘The Professor was going to pelt Hugh Mackay with a great, malodorous barrage of bunyip droppings, but then realised there wouldn't be any point.’

‘Examples of the former are the yowie (Australia's version of Bigfoot) and the bunyip (a swamp-dwelling, hairy creature with a horselike head).’

‘But in recent years there has been a flood of big indigenous icons, many owned by indigenous corporations: big koalas, big kangaroos, big crocodiles, big bunyips and big barramundi.’

‘It's mirrored by an account told by white settlers of a paddle steamer captain who shot a bunyip.’

‘What's more, he is a 53-year-old man who lives outside the city, throws three-day parties and whose ex-partner has written a book about bunyips.’

‘There's a good history of bunyips (admittedly, with kid-friendly flash) here.’

‘There was a rumble below and all the creatures began to flee yelling ‘Quick, here comes the bunyip!’.’

‘The bunyip lives in Australia and is believed by many to be a descendant of the diprotodon, a marsupial (an animal with a pouch, like the kangaroo) about the size of a rhinoceros, which became extinct thousands of years ago.’

‘It is the study of such creatures as the Australian bunyip, Bigfoot, the chupacabra, and the Loch Ness monster.’

2usually as modifierAn impostor or pretender.

‘Australia's bunyip aristocracy’

‘Since the days of Macarthur there has been a bunyip aristocracy in Australia that has been offended by the idea of having to pay to acquire labour.’

‘In the early 1850s, when Wentworth chaired the committee appointed to draft a new constitution for NSW, his unsuccessful plea for an upper house based on a hereditary colonial peerage was mocked as a bunyip aristocracy.’